Don't ever miss a sale again

Join our mailinglist

Milk Milk Lemonade & OLO Fragrance

Heather Sielaff is the woman behind OLO FRAGRANCE. She has British - Irish and German roots and grew up in North Carolina. Fifteen years ago she moved to Portland with her husband Jonathan for different reasons: it has a large creative community, It's cheaper then the popular big cities, has great food to offer and most of all: the nature in Oregon is breathtaking.

The Pacific Northwest is the perfect habitat for Heather. She prefers rain, clouds and fog over direct sunlight. Hiking the trails along the Pacific gives her a cleansing experience. Her love for nature and stormy weather makes tree resins, moss and wet dirt her combination of choice. It's those scents she tries to capture and blend into fragrances.

Heather has been a licensed massage therapist since 1998. For the aromatherapy sessions she was always searching for new essential oils. One day the idea hit her to blend the oils she was already using into a fragrance. Looking for a creative outlet, blending oils became her passion. OLO fragrance was born and 6 months after for sale at Nationale and other stores in the US. The brand has now over 100 distributors, mostly in the US and a few in Europe. Heather is also the owner of the beautiful MILK MILK LEMONADE shop in Portland.

Her fragrances are sold in her shop, together with hand picked jewelry, art prints and other curiosities made by local creative talent.

We discovered OLO actually through your Milk Milk Lemonade shop. We instantly fell in love with the interior design of the shop and the textile work on the wall.Who was the interior designer of the shop and could you tell us something about the design and choices you made?

My husband and I worked with Matthew Williams to design the space. I met him many years ago when we were selling our wares next to each other at a holiday event here in Portland. He built a few pieces for our home so when we decided to open a store he was the person we asked to build it out. Matthew is great to collaborate with. He has a talent for translating the ideas we give him and executing them perfectly while still maintaining his own distinctive touches. We are very happy with how our store fixtures turned out.

Looking at your instagram feed, it's not hard to tell you're a cat person, how many cats do you have?

I like cats. I have two male cats adopted from the same litter. Their names are Hoover and Britches. I’ve always had pets. Primarily cats and dogs but I’ve also had fish, birds, hamsters, mice, ferrets and a horse.

Reading about you, loving the clouds and the rain, the mountains and the Ocean, we imagine you to be a melancholic person. Is that correct?

I wouldn’t say I’m melancholic but I am introverted. I prefer to spend time alone and don’t seek the companionship of people very often, besides my husband. When I am with people I like smaller more intimate gatherings as opposed to loud parties.

How do you spend your weekends? When you go hiking, do you mostly visit the same places?

Weekends are typically spent in the shop. Any full day off is spent hiking along the Oregon coast or the gorge. We have our favorite spots but often explore other areas when time permits. This part of the country has so many beautiful places to choose from we never run out!

It seems that hand blending, creating your own skincare & perfume is becoming quite popular in the US. Do you think it's a new trend (after growing your own vegetables, eating organic) now also for skincare?

Creating your own perfumes and body products is definitely a trend. There are tons of small skin care lines debuting every week. Everyone thinks they can do it.

Have you ever visited Europe before?

My travels have only taken me to Canada and Asian. Europe is next. We don’t get many vacations so we tend to go home to visit the South or stick to major US cities like New York or LA. We did get to take a few days last spring to relax in Palm Springs and Joshua Tree. I highly recommend both places.

Have you read the book (or seen the movie) Perfume by Patrick Süskind?

I have not seen the movie but I’ve read the book. It was many years before I became interested in perfumery though.I’m currently reading Blindness by Jose Saramago. Maybe I am melancholic!

Last question: momma tried, the brest perfume bottles, the bag, the print works: what is it with you and brests?

I was a licensed massage therapist since 1998 so the human body isn’t a scary or taboo thing to me. As much as we are surrounded by very sexualized images (of mostly women) people here are still very uncomfortable with their private bits. I just think it’s fun to constantly bring them to everyone’s attention. I also have a juvenile sense of humor. And, boobs are nice.

Nationale is a gallery and shop in Portland. The scent was created in collaboration with, May Barruel, the shop owner. The inspiration of this fragrance was extracted from the old world rose soaps in her shop. It smells like a perfume from another time and place.